New York.<\/a> Born and bred pop-music fans who just moved to the city after several years in London, they deflate expectations: Their music is low-budget and low-energy \u2014 anhedonic sleepover-rap meets underground electropop, like Coco & Clair Clair but even more minimal. \u201cThe main emphasis of a lot of young music is to get really lit and overstimulated, and we don\u2019t necessarily relate to that,\u201d Lawrence says.<\/p>\nNew York\u2019s music is taking off: Samba walked the Paris Fashion Week runway for August Barron, then DJ\u2019d the after-party with Lawrence. In a few weeks, they are going on a global tour with the Norwegian duo Smerz. They caught up with The Cut ahead of their performance at the Unsound Festival in Krakow, Poland, for a conversation about their partnership, creative inspirations, and the road ahead.<\/p>\n
What is your relationship to New York, the city? <\/strong><\/p>\nCoumba Samba:<\/strong> I grew up here, so it\u2019s home for me.<\/p>\nGretchen Lawrence: <\/strong>I\u2019ve always been obsessed with it. Being from Eastern Europe, you dream of America. We were living in London for a while, and then Coumba moved back and we\u2019re at a place with New York, the band, for me to get an artist visa. So I finally made my dream come true.<\/p>\nAs a city, it really works for me. I think it\u2019s the perfect size, and it\u2019s more lightweight compared to London, where it feels you only commute for work and you work with everyone you know. In New York, people take more time for themselves. But I\u2019m so new, I haven\u2019t found my scene.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your origin story as a duo? How did you meet and decide to make music together?<\/strong><\/p>\nSamba: <\/strong>During the pandemic, I basically moved into a place where Greta and one other friend were living, and we just clicked over music.<\/p>\nLawrence:<\/strong> We were living in a massive \u201930s council estate, which was a crazy scene. There were always people with burner phones and breeding dogs and kids climbing up scaffolding. A lot of the council estates have open balconies, so you\u2019re just chilling on the balcony having a coffee and then just looking down at what people are doing.<\/p>\nWe have different perspectives on similar music, but both of us were heavily on Tumblr. We began to realize that we would be perfect creative collaborators because we don\u2019t have to overexplain things. We made one track and showed it to a friend and she was like, What the fuck is that? That\u2019s crazy. And then we made some more demos that were super weird and experimental, kind of inspired by the Space Lady.\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\nWhat were these shared musical reference points that you had?<\/strong><\/p>\nSamba: <\/strong>Electro, footwork, and pop music.<\/p>\nLawrence:<\/strong> Maybe DJ Rashad, DJ Assault, M.I.A., Felix da Housecat, and a lot of Ariana Grande. I have this one memory of me putting on \u201cKnock You Down,\u201d by Keri Hilson and Ne-Yo. Coumba was clapping, like, How do you know this song?<\/p>\nPop music is often about creating an atmosphere for the vocal. The beat doesn\u2019t play as big of a role, even though it\u2019s so important, as like in the 2000s when club music became pop \u2014 like Chemical Brothers or that kind of stuff.<\/p>\n
There is a cohort of younger pop artists who are merging pop top-line melodies with drum \u2019n\u2019 bass or U.K. garage or other underground club music. Are there artists that you think of as peers or inspirations?<\/strong><\/p>\nLawrence:<\/strong> Calvin Harris. I was just now thinking about Calvin Harris\u2019s \u201cBounce\u201d with Kelis. It\u2019s such a tune. Then, obviously, \u201cOne Kiss\u201d with Dua Lipa. That was playing everywhere when that came out.<\/p>\nGrowing up on Tumblr, what were your obsessions?<\/strong><\/p>\nSamba: <\/strong>I went through a lot of phases, but I don\u2019t think any of it was cool. It would be cuts from Skins, gold chains, and Arctic Monkeys T-shirts.<\/p>\nLawrence:<\/strong> I think my peak Tumblr phase was probably Boy London and more goth stuff. Nike Air Max, leggings, oversize tees, gold chains, beanies, army jackets \u2014 what was happening in London at the time paired with Azealia Banks\u2019s Fantasea mixtape.<\/p>\nYour visual style is very low-budget, experimental, iPhone-ish photography. Are there any directors who have inspired you?<\/strong>
<\/strong><\/p>\nSamba:<\/strong> I don\u2019t know. I mean, we\u2019re both just creative.<\/p>\nLawrence: <\/strong>Both of us work across a lot of different mediums and we know how to do everything ourselves: graphic design, video editing, all of it. We are anti\u2013being overproduced.<\/p>\nWhat are three things you\u2019re interested in right now?<\/strong><\/p>\nLawrence:<\/strong> I\u2019m reading a book called Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson. He kind of invented cyberpunk literature. That book is amazing. It\u2019s about this fashion consultant who has an allergy toward bad branding and logos. In the night, she\u2019s super deep in these weird video forums. And Purity & Danger, which is the most interesting podcast, is history, culture, weird kind of \u2014 I don\u2019t know, they have episodes on human dolls to birthday cakes. And then Paris. That was inspiring for our latest EP.<\/p>\nThis interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/p>\n
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